This is surprisingly common: people's behaviour around technology is awful, so the solution is more technology! As much as I agree that taking idiot humans out of the decision-making process is a good idea, I wonder what unintended side effects self-driving cars will have.
Also, it's not so difficult to not use your phone at a light, and in many jurisdictions, it is illegal to use a phone or other electronic device (which is not a driving aid, e.g. navigation systems) while in care and control of a vehicle. My wife, for example, refuses to even look at her phone while driving, even if stopped at a light; extremely frustrating for me when I'm trying to get her to pick me up somewhere, but easily defensible when you hear stories like this.
In the end, all of these stories seem to come down to selfishness, ignorance, and carelessness. If people were more aware of the world around them, then these things would be significantly less common. I feel as though technology isn't going to fix that until we've basically eliminated humans entirely from all decision making.
This is surprisingly common: people's behaviour around technology is awful, so the solution is more technology! As much as I agree that taking idiot humans out of the decision-making process is a good idea, I wonder what unintended side effects self-driving cars will have.
Also, it's not so difficult to not use your phone at a light, and in many jurisdictions, it is illegal to use a phone or other electronic device (which is not a driving aid, e.g. navigation systems) while in care and control of a vehicle. My wife, for example, refuses to even look at her phone while driving, even if stopped at a light; extremely frustrating for me when I'm trying to get her to pick me up somewhere, but easily defensible when you hear stories like this.
In the end, all of these stories seem to come down to selfishness, ignorance, and carelessness. If people were more aware of the world around them, then these things would be significantly less common. I feel as though technology isn't going to fix that until we've basically eliminated humans entirely from all decision making.